Rotor for rotary engines



May 21, 1935. E. SILBERMANN ROTOR FOR ROTARY ENGINES Filed April 16, 1951 Patented May 21, 1935 UNITED STATES 2.001500 no'roa roll, ROTARY enemas Eugen S ilbermann, Oradeamare, Rnmania, as liner to Explorotor A. G-, Glarlls, Switzerland,

in corporation or Bwi Ap lication April 16,1931, Serial No. 530,407 I In Switzerland April 22, mo

5 Claims. (CL 253-32) This invention relates to rotors for rotary power engines, in w rotors the working path for the driving medium may be formed either by channels provided in the body of the rotor or By 5 spaces between :blades carried on the periphery of said rotor, this application being a continuation of my copending applications Serial Nos. 408,199

and 494,405. The cflr'st of said applications relates to a rotor in which the channels are en-'- 10 larged at that side thereof which is foremost with relation to the direction of rotation of the rotor. The second of said applications relates to a rotor in which the channels are shaped to conform to three-dimensional curves. sThe oh- ]5 "ject of the present invention is to impart to the" working path for the driving medium a contour corresponding to the path of flow which the driving medium would naturally take if uninfiuenced by any forces other than continuous flow and centrifugal force. More specifically, the object of the invention is to provide a rotor having channels f or .the passage of the driving in um of such contour that 'each molecule of the driving medium while passing through the channels will 25 be under the influence of two motions, namely, a progressing motion produced by the delivery of the driving medium into the channels of the rotor, and a rotating motion caused by the rotation '01 the rotor. The resultant of these motions indi- --cates the direction of the'path oi flow to which the channels must be suited, which path is a helix of possibly variable pitch and diameter, and will very closely approximate a geodeticline on a surface of rotation the generatrix of which '-is a curve of the second degree,.that is to say,

a curved line the osculating plane of which at every point is normal to said surface of rotation.

Further objects of the invention will appearas the description proceeds.

40 In the drawing accompanying this specification,

Fig. -l is a'c'entral' longitudinal sectional .view through a conventional form of housing in which is mounted a' rotor em odying the features of the present invention; I v o Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional-view taken ap-' proximately on the line II-II of Fig. 1;

Figs. 3 to 6 inclusive are diagrammaticrviews illustrating rotors having respectively a cylindrical, an enclosed hyperboloid, a conical and a 1 50 spherical surface, the dotted lines indicating the center lines of channels formed in the surfaces of said rotors: v

'7 is a broken away side view illustrating 1 a rotor in the form of a-shaft provided'i-n its .55 peripherywith channels extending helically manner or a stator-guide, sage forms successively alternate guide androtor 59 across the shaft and decreasing in width toward their opposite ends;

Fig. 8 is a view similar to Fig. 7 of a shaft-. rotor, the channels in this instance having branchducts;

Fig.9 is a broken away sectional view illustrating a constructional form of a rotor such as showndiagrammatically in Fig. 3;

Fig. 10 is a cross sectional view illustrating a. further form of rotor;

Fig. 11 shows inperspective the shape of one of the rotor passages according to Fig. 12;

Figs. 12 and 13 show longitudinal sections of two further forms of rotors having distributing chambers co-operating with the passages;

Fig. 14 is a sectional view illustrating a rotor built up of a plurality of plates carrying complementary portionsof the channels.

Referringto Figs. 1 and 2; there are arranged inside a cylindrical casing I a plurality of rotor discs 2, 3, I which are fixed on a common shaft I. A gastight joint between the rotor members and the casing may be effected by any known suitable means provided either on the periphery oi the, rotor members or at the sides thereof, as by ribs 6 provided on the bore Bf the casingand engaging the sides of the rotor members as shown applied to the rotor member 4.

As heretofore explained, it is desirable that the contour of the channels resemble geodetic lines on surfaces of rotation. It will be observed that in all of the embodiments of the rotors herein suggested, this characteristic is present. The passages "I may also be provided with lateral branch passages as indicated in Fig. 8 in order to increasethe area ofthe working face.

According to Figs. 3 to 6 each passage 1 encircles the axis of rotation more than once, thus forming an advancing "spiral with a constant or variable diameter. The pitch of the spiral 0" may also be nil, so that with a varying diameter it becomes a flat spiral, as indicated in Fig. 9. V

with passages thus formed there is asingle passage instead oi the interrupted wave line path which the driving medium takes in passing through the stator androtorblades of known multi-stage turbines, so that the rotor discs having es of this kind also function in the inasmuch as the posportions.

Fig. '9 shows diagrammatically a of an. engine in which the driving medium has a spiral travel according to the construction sliown inare formed by grooves It for the ignition and torque on the 'The gases passing These forms of passages enable the conditionsof flow to be varied to suit the nature of the driving medium or the method of driving. Inasmuch as the driving medium passes to thepassages in the form of impulses, the explosion taking place immediately before reachingthe passages, there is first an impact action followed by a reaction as a result of expansion of the gases. It will depend mainly on the kind of driving medium employed whether the channels are so formed'that the flow in the passages is supported by centrifugal force, or is opposed by the latter, or whether the one action takes place in the first part of the passage and the other in the second part, in order to first increase the. reaction by back pressure and then rapidly reject the driving medium from the passage.

The cross section of the passage is such that it presentssurfac'es which are more concave than convex relatively to the direction of rotation of the rotor, so that the driving medium is utilized as fully as possible. v

The cylinder I as shown in .Fig. 1, has an explosion chamber 8 provided with apertures 9, ll

the introduction of the driving medium, these features being shown conventionally in the drawing The rows of passages in the rotor members may increase in diameter in the direction of the flow of the driving medium and in accordance with the reduction of pressure, so that all the rotor members exert an equal shaft. The diameter of the rows of. passages may also be equal, whilehowever increasing the total cross sectional area of the passages of the second and following stagesby increasing the number of passages or their area. from the chamber through the passages in the rotor members exert on the walls of such passages a pressure the direction of which is transverse to the shaitirr-the case of all the passages, so thatthe rotor discs are rotated.

The driving medium may be b'enzine or crude oil, or especially ammonium nitrate, chlorates, naphthalene, picrates and so forth, and the engine may be adapted to operate without means for guiding the driving medium to the passages. The driving medium from the; explosion cham-' beracts on all the passages simultaneously, as

it enters all of them simultaneously and acts from the centre in all directions. No guide members are required as the distribution is ef-" fected by controlling the explosions, ing the explosi' The known bladed rotors rotating inside a housing have their efliciency reduced by ejection losses. These losses do not occurin rotors having passagesfbut there are however rotating surfaces which oppose the driving medium, namely those parts of the inside of thepassages which are opposite thoseacted upon by Tthe driving medium. Experience-has shown that a favori. e. by timobtained by a combination of According to Figs. 10 and 11,

I able eiIiciency is the two systems.

the passages 43communicate at the inlet end with a slot 44, these slotted ends issuing to the fixed housing 45. Their other ends 46 (the reaction zones) are not slotted. A perspective view of the inner wall of one of the passages 48 is shown in Fig. 11.

In the engines above described the gasesflow from a hollow chamber disposed in the axisof rotation through the passages, the'flow being possibly promoted by centrifugal force. Fig. 12 shows hdweve'r, an arrangement in which this fiow'is reversed. The gases are conducted from the suction or explosion chamber 8 to the outer ends of the passages 4| in the rotors '40. These passages lead to a common collecting chamber 42 from which they are discharged. In this case it will be generally advisableto provide passages the cross section of which increases, so that the resistance to the gases in the passages is reduced.

. Fig. 13 shows an analogous engine having an outside explosion chamber 24 and an annular distributor 22.

In order to facilitate the production of the passages, and to enable them to be given a smooth face, the rotor (Fig. 14) may be built up of a number of parts 51 to 60, such parts having each a short length of passage which may be readily machined. when the parts are assembled they present collectively a passage of the desired length, and do notrequire astationary rdistributing guide member.- 4

What I claim'is:

, ii In a rotor for rotary engines in which the propelling medium operates intermittently, channels for the passage of a propelling medium the longitudinal axis follows a continuous substantially coincident with a geodetic line on a surface of rotation of the second degree the generatrix of which is a curve of the second dc gree and conforming to the path of flow taken by the said medium when considered merely as moving forwards with a velocity determined by given running conditions of the engine and at the same time travelling round the middle axis of the rotor with a velocity determined by the given normalspeed of the engine.

2.In a rotor for rotary engines channels as claimed in claim 1 each of which describes at least one complete helical turn and is of a crosssectionalarea increasing towards that side thereof which is foremost relatively to the direction ofrotation of the rotor.

3. In a rotor for rotary engines, channels as claimed in claim 1 disposed on the periphery of the rotor, each of which channels describes at least one complete helical turn and is of a crosssection area increasing towards that side thereof which is foremost relatively to the direction of rotation of the rotor.

4. In -a rotor. for rotary claimed in claiml having lateral branch passages the walls vof which are adapted to form surfaces of reaction with respect to the said prop lling medium;

- 5. In a rotor for rotary claimed in claim 1 of diminishing cross-sectional r area towards both ends thereof. 1

engines. channels as engines, channels as 

